


Other Eyes Smile

by Medie



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-09
Updated: 2010-02-09
Packaged: 2017-10-07 03:32:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In theory, after what Emony told him, Len knew this was how it worked.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Other Eyes Smile

**Author's Note:**

> for [](http://community.livejournal.com/bridge2sickbay/profile)[**bridge2sickbay**](http://community.livejournal.com/bridge2sickbay/) prompt: McCoy/Other: McCoy/Author's Choice - Georgia, Georgia / No peace, no peace I find / Just this old, sweet song / Keeps Georgia on my mind (Ray Charles)

He'd never thought about this. Probably should have, all things considered. The hobgoblin would say it was 'only logical that the symbiont would continue' and, lord help him, Spock would be right. Except that's not the point.

He closes his eyes, remembers laughing eyes and bouncing curls, feeling hands so strong and sure slide over his skin. The sensation leaves him cold with the sobering realization.

Emony's dead, but Dax is not. Emony is dead and buried a half dozen light years away. Laughing eyes and brilliant smile forever gone. Dax is here, alive, looking at him with eyes that are stranger and friend all at once. In theory, after what Emony told him, Len knew this was how it worked. One host died, another took their place, the symbiont carried on. He knew it then, but he _understands_ it now. Understands the complexity and the angst and the joy all at once.

Of course, he doesn't exactly _care_. Not when he's caught up in grieving a woman he hasn't seen in well over a decade, never expected to see again, and facing her successor.

Sitting across from him in the 602 Club, Niah Dax is nothing like Emony. A tall redhead, the only thing she has in common with her previous host is a lean physique and those ever-present spots.

She watches him over the rim of her mug. Her eyes are sympathetic. He can feel a 'I know this must be difficult' speech coming on and orders another drink. "We're gonna do this," he says, "I probably shouldn't be sober."

Dax smiles. Wistful, sad, but amused at the same time. It's that humor he remembers so much. He's only met one - _two_ \- of the Dax hosts, so he hasn't got much to compare it to, but he has feeling it's symbiont's contribution to the joining. At least, one of them. "That's the usual way of it, yes."

"Had this conversation before, did you?" he asks. His next drink arrives and it vanishes as quickly as the first. The burn spreads through his system, only slightly dulling the sharp edge of a loss he hadn't even known he'd suffered. The whole thing's as confusing as hell and he's not even sure how he's supposed to be feeling. He'd known Emony for a few days. Long enough for her to impart her race's most treasured secret, but not long enough to really know her at all. He'd gotten a glimpse. A beautiful, bizarre, life-changing glimpse that he's carried with him ever since. More than a few women in his life have been unfairly compared to Dax.

Including, apparently, Dax herself.

"Do I want to know what happened?" he asks."_How_?"

That smile, sad and gentle, and she shakes her head. "Maybe in time, but right now?" Niah, easier to think of her that way, leans forward and lays a hand on his. It's cool, just like he remembers, but the slender fingers that brush his feel nothing like Emony's. "This is difficult enough already."

He looks at her, seeing the struggle in her eyes, and gets a glimpse of it from her point of view. This woman is a stranger who isn't a stranger at all. He wonders what it's like to lie down on a table one person and wake up another. Losing part of yourself to another lifeform and all the memories it carries. He wonders what it's like to look at someone you've never met and feel the kick of attraction intermingled with fond memories you didn't live. "For the both of us."

Niah laughs, nodding. "Saw that, did you?" She sits back, putting distance between them, and he tries not to feel the ache of it. "These meetings are never easy. I had it the easiest the first time around. As Lela Dax there were no previous hosts. No previous lovers, spouses, children, friends, none of that. With each successive host, that changes. Sometimes, it's easier than others."

"And this time?" Len bites the inside of his cheek. Watching her, he's not sure which answer he's looking for. She's not Emony, but she's Dax and he feels like he's going to be saying that a lot.

"Frustrating," she sighs. She looks at him and, for a moment, he sees Emony in her eyes. "I'm not her."

Len huffs a laugh. This is familiar ground. He's a world and two apocalypses (personal and planetary) away from the kid he was then.

"Lucky thing," he says, ordering another round. "I'm not him."


End file.
